Jesse Norman said the eccentric backbencher 'would be an outstanding candidate'

Mr Rees-Mogg wrote that stamp duty must be slashed “as a matter of urgency” as part of a return to Tory values, as well as towers like Grenfell demolished and “scarcely competent monopolies” such as the energy market blown open.

The eccentric backbencher has distanced himself from suggestions he will run for Tory leader

She told the BBC: “This is going to sound very dramatic because I don’t believe this will happen so I’m hoping this is completely hypothetical – I couldn’t be in the Conservative party if he was my leader,” she said.

“That’s nothing nasty or to slight Jacob at all, he’s incredible charming, very generous, has been very welcoming to me as a new MP, we often sit quite close together…

“He is not the modern face of the Tory party that we are desperate – or I am certainly and colleagues are desperate – to prove is out there. Eighteenth century, he’s a moderniser if he’s the minister for the 18th century!

“He’s fabulous in his own right but he is not the future and I am desperate for us to find that future.”